“Boring office job” – that’s my standard answer when someone asks me what I do for work. The extent to which this is true depends on the audience, but certainly for most of my peer group, quite possibly the majority of my generation, it’s a fair summary. I have settled into this nondescript response for a number of reasons, but the primary motive is to avoid the crestfallen, glazed-over look that I have to try and navigate my way past if I give a more comprehensive answer.

“I work in pensions” – that’s what I used to say. I hated it. Because they hated it. THAT word. What is it about “pension” that causes people to disengage with haste? From marketing executives, PE teachers, tradesmen, catwalk models (once!), I’ve even encountered taxi drivers who decided even their conversational skills couldn’t justify further interaction with the pensions consultant in the back.

It has occurred to me though, as my career in the pensions industry has continued (and perhaps, I have grown-up), that this issue has greater consequences than just ruining all my encounters with catwalk models…

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